The Girl
by ducky48
Summary: Jane receives some boxes of her childhood things from her ma. While she and Maura go through it they find a picture of Jane starting a new High School, her junior year. One specific face in the background brings back some memories for Jane - "She was the short girl who was really into Shakespeare!"


**This is Jane/Maura friendship, but if you want to read more into it… I'm not stopping you ;)**

* * *

Jane read the slip of paper again. Room 223. The classroom she now stood outside. Sighing once again about needing to change schools, she pressed the handle down and opened the door. About thirty pairs of eyes turned to her. Avoiding the looks, Jane walked up to the teacher; a slightly overweight man with graying hair.

"Excuse me", Jane said, remembering her ma's nagging about being polite. "I'm Jane Rizzoli and I'm new to the school."

"Yes, I got the word", the teacher said and ruffled around in his papers on his desk, before turning towards the class of fifteen-year-olds. "Everyone, this is Jane. She is going to be in our class." He turned back to Jane and said: " Why don't you take a seat and I'll fill you in on what we've been working on after the lesson."

Jane nodded. She slowly walked down the classroom to find an empty seat. She sat down next to a boy on the last row in the middle. She smiled at him and he nodded ones as a hello.

As the teacher started rambling about Shakespeare, Jane looked around at her fellow classmates. She would probably have most lessons with most of them, not only English. Her eyes landed on a light brown haired, short girl on her right. The girl sat alone, bent over a paper, seemingly taking a great interest in the teacher. Or more likely, Shakespeare. Her pen was flying over the paper as she took notes. Jane found it strange that the girl wasn't sitting in the front, if she was so interested in the lesson.

Shaking her head, Jane turned back to try and concentrate on the teacher. She wanted to go to college and a boring teacher wasn't going to stop her get the grades she needed. No way in hell.

The lesson ended a few decades after that. This had Jane a little worried. The first lesson in this new school and she was already bored to tears. But she pretended the opposite when she stayed behind and talked to the teacher. When he finally let her go, with a lot of homework since she apparently needed to 'catch up', everyone else was long gone.

She walked down the corridor to find the next classroom. She could see some of the kids in her English class standing by their lockers. They were all talking and having fun with each other. Jane wondered if these people were going to be her friends.

But then she noticed that the short girl, who was interested in Shakespeare, stood all alone. She was shoving down book after book in her bag. She then closed her locker and turned to walk away. She kept her head down and hurried past the other students. One blonde girl noticed her and discretely put her foot out in her way. The short girl stumbled over the foot and fell to the floor.  
A couple of kids laughed and the blonde girl sneered:

"Watch where you're going, freak."

She turned back to her friends, who all smirked approvingly. The short girl on the floor, stood up and ran away.

Jane followed her with her eyes. What was all that about? She felt a little guilty, but she didn't want to cross anyone on her first day, so kept her mouth shut. Instead she walked up to the boy she'd been sitting next to in class. He was nice enough and introduced her to his friends.

They invited her to sit with them in the cafeteria at lunch and they showed her around the school. They were all nice.

As Jane and the others walked towards History class that afternoon, the sound of sirens filled the corridor. Jane looked out the window and saw an ambulance pulling up on the schoolyard. Exchanging confused looks, the teenagers watched as two men jumped out of the vehicle and went out of their sight. Soon one of them came back, opened the back of the ambulance and brought out a gurney. He disappeared again.

"What do you think is going on?" Jane asked.

"No idea."

The men came back with a small body on the gurney. Jane gasped as she saw that it was the short girl with light brown hair from her English class. The girl's face was screwed up in pain and she held her left arm close to her chest.

"Damn, they got her good", one of the guys frowned.

"What do you mean?" Jane asked.

The men put the girl in the back of the ambulance and was soon out on the road.

"That kid has been bullied since forever", a girl explained. "Looks like someone took it too far this time."

"Probably Joe Wilkins", one guy said.

"Or Lacey Olsen."

Jane stared at them. Someone at this school got a girl landed in the ER? What kind of school was this?

* * *

Jane stared at the pile. Her ma had given her a couple of boxes of her childhood stuff. Most of it was just pure crap.

"I didn't know you went to Lincoln High…"

Maura's voice travelled from the bedroom to Jane's ears. Jane put the last of her old junk in the trash and walked into the room. Maura was sitting on the bed, next to another box of stuff, looking through some photos.

"Yes, only junior and senior year, though", Jane replied.

"Really…?" Maura said absently.

Jane frowned at the odd behavior and went to sit next to her.

"Yeah, why?"

Maura seemed to shake out of her absence and met Jane's gaze.

"I didn't know. When was this taken?"

She handed Jane a picture. It showed a young Jane, smiling but appearing to roll her eyes. She was standing outside a building and you could see the words _Lincoln Hi_… the rest of the letters disappeared behind Jane's head. There were lots of teenagers in the background, doing this and that.

"I think this is from my first day", Jane said and looked closer. "Ma wouldn't let me go before she got a picture."

"Ah."

Jane turned the picture around.

"Yep, here it says; September 15… that was my first day."

"Really? September 15", Maura had gotten that absently look on her face again.

"Yeah, what does that mean to you?" Jane asked still scanning the picture.

"Nothing…"

"Oh my God, look!"

Jane shoved the picture back in Maura's hand. She pointed to a girl in the background of the photo.

"I remember her", Jane said. "But she changed schools after my first day. She was the short girl who was really into Shakespeare."

"What? How do you know that?" Maura asked. "And Jane, move your finger I can't see her face."

"She was taking notes like crazy during English class. I remember that I thought it was weird that she wasn't sitting in the front", Jane talked faster as memories flowed back to her. "But then someone told me she was bullied. Yeah, right that day someone beat her so bad, an ambulance picked her up. She didn't come back to school after that."

Jane finally looked at Maura and immediately sobered up. Maura had gone really pale and was staring at the picture.

"Maura, what is it?" Jane asked.

Maura didn't answer.

"Maura?"

Maura drew a shaky breath.

"That girl was me", she said.

"What?"

"The girl in this picture. The girl who liked Shakespeare. The girl who was bullied. That's me."

Jane stared at her.

"That's you?" she pointed at the picture. Maura nodded. "But I thought you like went to an all-girls school in France or something."

"I did. My parents got called to the ER and got to know about the bullying. They immediately pulled me out and placed me somewhere else."

Jane sat down, still a little shocked.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

"It wasn't that bad", Maura didn't meet Jane's eyes.

"Wasn't bad? You were picked up by an ambulance!"

Maura frowned but didn't say anything.

"What did they do to you?" Jane asked gently.

"That day?"

Jane nodded.

"It wasn't really that bad, the teacher just freaked out a little", Maura said. "A boy pushed me down the stairs. I broke my arm and got a couple of cuts and bruises."

"Maura!" Jane exclaimed.

"What?"

"That's terrible!"

"I know", Maura admitted, looking down. "But it was a long time ago…"

Jane didn't let her finish before scooting closer and wrapping her arms around her. Maura sighed and hugged her friend back. They stayed like that for a while before pulling back. Maura made a weak attempt to a smile to show that she was okay and then looked away. Her eyes landed on the picture. She picked it up.

"I can't believe we went to the same school", Jane said as she looked at it as well.

"It was only for a day", Maura reminded her.

"Still."

Maura nodded.

"Do you remember me?" Jane asked.

"From High School? Well, I didn't know it was you, but I have a vague memory of being told there was a new kid in my class. But I wasn't really paying attention to it. To you."

"Why not? You could've made a new friend."

"I wasn't very good at making friends", Maura said. "I'm still not."

"Hey! You made me your friend. And Frankie and Frost and Korsak…"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Jane, but I may have made you my friend but you were the one who really made me connect with Frost, Korsak and Frankie. If it wasn't for you we would've most likely just stayed coworkers."

"You don't know that", Jane said, half-heartedly since she knew that was probably true. "What about Susie?"

"Same there, except she's more my coworker than anything."

"But what about…?"

"Save it, Jane", Maura smiled. "I haven't made a lot of close friends. But I don't need them. I have you."

"Are you trying to make me cry?" Jane whined and hugged her again.

Maura laughed.

"Love you, Jane."

"Love you too, Maura."


End file.
